Posts Tagged ‘portfolio’

I’ve posted several new items in the portfolio pages, including a CMS theme design for a grassroots political organization, promotional banners for e-commerce and very fresh (hot out of the oven!) examples in e-learning.

That last item (pictured, in part, at right) was something of a retro treat — a project to create content for a learning platform that I designed and helped to develop several years ago. At the time, I handed off the completed system to the production teams and never personally generated much actual course content for it. While I did create concept demos and some initial coursework to shake out the platform and the production process, I never had a chance to personally do full-bore, real-life content development with material that could show off its stuff in the way I originally envisioned. Now, years later, I had my chance.

The platform was intended to be something of a blank slate, capable of handling any type of content, from text layouts to video, animation and interactive pieces. It’s most common usage, though, was indicated by its name — “Magazine.” The intent was to create pages that mixed the layout conventions of that print medium, leveraging its rich and widely-understood information architecture, with the interactivity and dynamic nature of the web.

The result, as sampled here, is a grid-based layout carried throughout the magazine-style course. It features typographically varied headlines, integrated interactivity that provides content depth and supplementary breadth, and a dynamic on-screen build that both reinforces the information hierarchy and demonstrates the usage of certain features such as the tabs that segregate optional information off-screen.

As most designers will tell you, developing a personal portfolio site is perhaps one of the most painful creative processes imaginable. Even without the added pressures of the show-and-tell nature of a portfolio, older work often seems, well, imperfect. The eye of the work’s creator is ultimately the harshest critic, alert to every flaw and compromise. At the same time, the affection for an old favorite piece winds up fighting against the desire for brevity and a sensible selection of representative work.

Then comes the question of how high to aim. The portfolio surely must be perfect. Or, the opposite argument, the portfolio must be a transparent platform on which the work can speak for itself. I vacillated in building this site, from one extreme to the other. If you’ve come here via the portfolio pages, you’ve already seen which path I chose, the decision simplified by the inevitable paralysis of the avenue leading toward perfection.

I will continue to add pieces here, for a few interesting favorites still clamor to be added. Take a look around and let me know what you think.